The Badlands
by aszecsei
Summary: Before Defiance, Joshua Nolan and Irisa Nyira were just a human and Irathient trying to make their living in the dog-eat-dog world of the Badlands. Having to deal with Ark Hunters, Spirit Riders, and a postwar cultural melting pot isn't easy for the pair, but every time Nolan looks at Irisa, he knows that he wouldn't change a thing.
1. Why Don't You Stay For Dinner?

**A/N: After one episode, I can already say that Defiance looks like it's going to be an awesome show. And, unless someone's posted something else, this is going to be the first multi-chapter fic in the category, as well as the first fic posted after the show aired. I'm planning on having a number of scenes from the show intermixed with bits and pieces of Nolan and Irisa's past. Hopefully I can do justice to the fantastic relationship these two characters have, as well as the melting pot of alien cultures the show contains.**

**I will try to post weekly, a chapter per episode, though I've got a number of other projects I'm working on, so I might be a few days late sometimes. Also, as you can probably tell, since the show's just started, this will probably become AU by the end of season 1. Hopefully I can still intertwine the two.  
**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Defiance, though I wish Bear McCreary would compose the score of my day-to-day life.**

* * *

_**Chapter One**_

_**Why Don't You Stay For Dinner?**_

* * *

_The Terra-Sphere was heavy in his pack. The jubilation of finding the treasure had given way to a sense of dread. It wasn't the first time the Spirit Riders had interrupted Ark Hunters after they'd found treasure, but this wouldn't be like the epic battles he'd witnessed in San Francisco, either. He and Irisa were outnumbered at least ten to one, and he didn't fancy a full-on firefight with those odds._

_He'd survived the Pale Wars, and he'd learned: know your limits. If a battle would end in failure, it was better to live to fight another day than to waste your life needlessly._

_"Spirit Riders," he said to Irisa. "Better stay—"_

_He stopped. A tall Irathient had grabbed Irisa, a gun in his right hand, and a hat tilted jauntily on his head. The flashes of light from the Spirit Riders' vehicles briefly illuminated his face._

_A female Irathient wearing what appeared to be a football helmet approached him. He tried to defuse the situation, knowing that it could devolve into a firefight at any moment - and if it did become a fight, he wasn't sure they could escape with their lives._

_"At ease, friends," he said in the Irathient tongue. Knowing the Spirit Riders' hatred of humans, it would be a mistake to speak English to them. "We don't want trouble."_

_The female took his gun from his holster while the big one spoke to Irisa._

_"Little one," he said, "why do you partner with this human? Why not ride with your own kind?"_

_"Because you people smell like _shtako_," she snarked, in English. Nolan shook his head. Irisa never could tell when to be polite._

_"Such fire," the male said, and Nolan was thankful to hear amusement instead of anger. "You are Irathient to be sure."_

_Nolan noticed a scar that crossed the male's face. He wasn't new to leadership, or to fighting. His initial assessment had been correct: the situation was very, very dangerous. He took Nolan's gun from the female._

_"She's just this human's pet," the female said dismissively. "Does he feed you little treats?"_

_Irisa responded, equally mocking, this time in the Irathient tongue. "We're cannibals," she said. "Why don't you stay for dinner?"_

* * *

Joshua Nolan crested the ridge. He'd left the mass of Ark Hunters behind. They all jostled for favors, each trying to be the king of their little group. Nolan didn't have time for it. He didn't need a group in order to feel safe; once he'd gotten the majority of the arkfall treasures, the others would show up, having been slowed by all the infighting and problems that came with a large group. Then the Spirit Riders and other creatures would show up, and he could simply leave in all the confusion.

The arkfall bloomed in fire and smoke overhead, and he mentally plotted its trajectory. His Roller could do it for him, of course, but he still didn't trust it to be entirely accurate. He'd watched too many fellow soldiers die because technology had miscalculated the targets of cold-fire mortars. He was close to the landing zone; he'd make it there in a few minutes. He'd have maybe twenty, twenty-five minutes before the other Ark Hunters showed up, and then he'd have to get away before he got too caught up in the chaos of the inevitable fight for resources.

He turned to go back to his Roller, when a sound got his attention.

He almost dismissed it as a wild animal until he heard the strained grunts of what was unmistakably an Irathient. He'd heard them wounded and dying too many times to forget the sound.

But the Pale Wars were over, and he couldn't hear the raucous cheers of Spirit Riders. An Irathient on their own was a dangerous enemy, and for one of them to be attacked meant there was an even more dangerous enemy nearby, one who could attack him next.

"The enemy of my enemy," Nolan said, and ran towards the sound.

What he found stopped him cold.

The skeleton of a male Irathient lay on the ground, picked clean. Nearby, two emaciated Irathient females struggled against each other, an adult fighting a child. Neither had the strength to win a decisive victory, and they were both suffering from bleeding cuts, but the child was slowing down, and Nolan knew if he didn't intervene, she would lose the fight - and her life.

He raised his pistol without thinking and fired a burst of shots. They went through the adult female's head, and the Irathient toppled to one side, dead. The child didn't move, panting and grunting in pain.

He cautiously walked over. The woman had the tribal markings of the Spirit Riders, but seemed to be on her own. The child didn't have the markings, which meant that the woman hadn't been part of a group of Riders since she'd either found the child, or given birth. The similarities in appearance, visible even despite the emaciation of the two aliens, led him to believe they were related.

"Are you alright?" he asked in the Irathient tongue. He wasn't too worried about the girl, seeing as she was already weakened and injured, but he didn't want a scratch or bite that he'd have to worry about getting infected later.

"Are you going to eat me?" asked the girl.

Nolan put the pieces together: the clean skeleton of the male Irathient, and the emaciated state of the two females.

"No," he replied, taking a step forward. "I'm sorry about your mother."

The child shrugged slightly. "She was going to eat me," she said tonelessly.

Nolan sighed. If he left the kid on her own, she'd die within days. The family had already been starving to death, and the female Irathient wouldn't provide much by way of food. If he'd been a little calmer, he could have reasoned with the woman, maybe given them some food and a ride to a settlement of some sort, but now the girl had nobody to look after her.

He looked at where he reasoned the arkfall would have landed, and then back to the girl. He'd have to rush to get there before the other Ark Hunters as it was, and if he also had to deal with a child, there was no way he could get any sort of payoff before the fighting broke out.

He cursed, and dropped to a crouch. "I've got some food," he told the girl. "And I'll look out for you, if you want."

The child stared at him, her inhumanly round eyes gazing intently at his own face.

"Alright," she said.

As he picked her up, he spoke. "I'm Nolan," he introduced himself.

After a pause, the child spoke. "Irisa," she said. "Irisa Nyira."


	2. We Could Make A Difference

**A/N: I know I said 1 chapter per episode, but the premiere was a 2 hour beast.../excuse**

**I took some liberties with a scene from the video game. I haven't played it, just seen a couple of LPs on YouTube, but...yeah. I changed a few things in order to switch the POV from the player to Nolan, hopefully things aren't totally ruined?**

**If you enjoy this fic, try Wounds by WomanTwiceDead. It's got the adorable Nolan/Irisa dynamic down pat.  
**

* * *

_"We got out of there just in time," Irisa said to him from her perch on the Roller. She handed him the binoculars._

_"Oh, _shtako_," Nolan cursed. "They're headed straight for Defiance," he said, lowering the binoculars. "Make it about seven clicks. They should hit Bissel Pass just after sunset."_

_"Let's put some distance between us," Irisa said, and walked over from the Roller. She grabbed the binoculars from his hand. He rolled his head, brow furrowed._

_"We could make a difference," he said. Irisa didn't respond. "They got Indogenes in that town. They could work up a burkus rig for this sphere, create a weapon the Volge wouldn't even see coming."_

_Irisa turned to him. "We'd burn out the sphere. We'd be left with nothing."_

_Nolan had made his decision already. "Yeah, I know. I'm sorry, but some things, they just need to be done."_

_Irisa shook her head, disbelieving. "You're doing it again," she accused._

_"No, kiddo," Nolan tried to reason, but she was too angry._

_"Don't!" she yelled, pulling a knife into her hand. The blade was familiar, comforting. An edged weapon had no surprises, didn't do anything but cut the way it was meant to. She pressed it to Nolan's chest. "Every time we get ahead, you blow it for us."_

_Nolan looked at her. "Yeah, this is different. There are kids in this town."_

_Irisa shook her head. "I don't care!" She turned and walked away a few paces._

_Nolan shouted after her. "Little kids, and yes, you do care. Don't you say that to me, okay? I know you better than that, and I raised you better than that."_

_She got into the Roller, closing the door in Nolan's face. "Go ahead, get yourself killed."_

_"Hey, I got no intention of dying today," he said._

_"Most people don't. It still happens."_

_"Well, where are you gonna go?" he asked, one final attempt to make her stay._

_"Antarctica. I'd send you a postcard, but I know you've already got one." She revved the engine and took off, leaving Nolan staring after her._

* * *

When they'd first started Ark Hunting together in San Francisco, Irisa had been against it. There were too many people, people who would only get in the way and end up taking all the good loot. He'd managed to persuade her, and their first ark fall was just around the bend: a minor one, one that shouldn't draw too much attention in an area filled with much larger prizes.

"There she is, Irisa," he said. "Our tickets to Antarctica could be right inside that arkfall."

"Not if we let them claim it," Irisa said, gesturing to the approaching figure.

"Hey! This is our arkfall! Find your - wait, I remember you. You were on the stratocarrier." The man was wearing the same puffy white jacket as he had before the carrier had crashed.

"_Shtako_!" Irisa cursed. "Nolan. Look."

Hellbugs were swarming towards them, a roiling mass of vicious beasts with pincer-like legs and gaping tooth-filled maws. "This is a problem," he said, an obvious understatement. "No need to be greedy. We'll split the find. 50/50. What do you say?"

The man didn't say anything, too busy rapidly emptying his pistol into the approaching mass of creatures. Nolan took the hint and began unloading his own weapon, trusting Irisa to do the same. Trust didn't mean he wouldn't check up on his daughter every now and then, though.

"How you doin, kiddo?" he asked.

"You said this would be easy!" Irisa yelled back. _Great_, he thought, _she's pissed at me. Again._

He unloaded a shotgun blast directly in the face of a small hellbug that had leapt from underground, intent on piercing his skull with one of its pincers.

"See?" he said. "Nothing to it."

The roar of chopper rotors answered him, as two of the rusting vehicles approached. A mutant inside launched a grenade at him, and he barely managed to roll away. He really did need to stop tempting fate, he realized.

Thankfully the other man seemed to be prepared for the arrival, as he lobbed a grenade into one of the vehicles before activating some sort of stealth field. The next thing Nolan knew, the loud blast of a sniper rifle resounded through the air, and both choppers began spiralling into the ground.

Not to be outdone, more hellbugs arrived on the scene, stampeding over the corpses of their fallen brethren in their eagerness to feast on the three people. The sniper rifle took most of them out easily, and the ones that managed to slip past met their ends in Nolan and Irisa's own weapons.

Finally, the coast was clear. A high-pitched whine was all the warning Nolan had before he tackled Irisa to the ground, the arkfall exploding behind them, sending a wave of scalding hot air over his back. A piece of debris flew through the air and lodged itself in his side, piercing through the skin and muscle easily. He cursed, and got up, groaning.

"Come on, let's loot this thing before the vultures swoop in." He ignored the pain from his side and turned to face Irisa, still on the ground. "This is fun, right?"

She got up, pointedly staring at the twisted metal still protruding from Nolan's side. "I want to punch you. Hard."

He smiled at her cheerfulness and turned to the sniper. He'd been a real help with the mutants, and he figured he could use the aid with some of the more difficult jobs.

"I'm sure glad you made it off that stratocarrier. Name's Nolan. This little ray of sunshine is Irisa." He extended his hand, and the sniper shook it. "We might have a little job coming up, maybe we'll be in touch."

He followed Irisa as she walked away.

"You got distracted," she chided him.

Nolan looked down at the debris. "It's not too bad, is it?"

"It looks deep," Irisa said. "I definitely don't want to be taking it out without a lot of bandages ready."

"Yes, yes, you told me so," he said. She'd insisted on packing medical supplies instead of more storage space for salvage, and right now, he was finding it hard to disagree with her logic. "Can we have less of the gloating and more of the doctoring up?"

"Depends," Irisa said. "Are we leaving soon?"

Nolan knew how much Irisa hated towns. There were too many people, too much instability. It was hard to earn her trust, and even harder to earn her loyalty, and with so many strangers around, she was constantly on edge.

But towns were a necessity. It was impossible to survive without anyone else, and he wasn't the one who needed ark salvage. Food, unfortunately, did not fall from the sky the same way Votan tech did, and until that happened, he needed the towns to trade the two.

"We need to trade in this salvage, see what kinda scrip we can get," he told her. "And then, if there aren't any good jobs, we'll get out of here. Promise."

Irisa sighed, but knew it would be the best she could get. Nolan did understand, after all, and he wouldn't ask her to stay long without good reason.

After six months in San Francisco, she learned her lesson: Nolan may have had the best intentions, but his promises usually amounted to _shtako_.

* * *

**A/N 2: Like? Dislike? Wish I'd crawl in a hole and never inflict my writing on you again?**


	3. Antarctica's Not Real, Kid

**A/N: I'm not entirely thrilled with this. I was contemplating making it a multi-chapter arc, but realized it would necessitate Nolan behaving completely out of character: he's cunning, and picks his battles, but he's not about to leave Irisa in a dangerous situation if he can help it. I'm not sure if the flow is quite right, but that's what happens when you watch the episode on Sunday and need to publish the chapter before the new episode comes out Monday. Procrastination is not my greatest quality.  
**

**On the other hand, episode 2 had some really fantastic scenes, and I'm really looking forward to some hellbugs in episode 3!**

* * *

_When Amanda left, he turned to face Irisa. He put on his most serious face and walked over as she looked away. _"Stay away from Elah Bandik,"_ he'd instructed her earlier. She obviously knew - and he obviously knew - she'd done no such thing._

_"So what'd you do? Bust him out?" he asked, sitting down. Irisa looked at him again._

_"I don't like chains."_

_"You did the right thing," he said, approving. As lawkeeper, he had a responsibility to the Mayor, and to the safety of Defiance as a whole. He'd had to back out of the Bandik affair. Irisa had no such duty - daughters were expected to disobey commands, after all._

_"Amanda helped."_

_That was news. The Mayor had been fairly firm in her decision earlier. Apparently it was harder to maintain neutrality when faced with the abused body of the man you were condemning to torture._

_Still, it wasn't often he got to rub something in Irisa's face. Usually it was the other way around...so he felt entirely justified in turning the full force of his teasing on her. "Wow, so we were right to trust her," he said in such an over-the-top voice that Irisa couldn't help but grin a little. He grinned back before she looked down again._

_"Are we ever gonna make it to Antarctica?"_

_"Antarctica's not real, kid," he told her._

_"You sure of that?"_

_"No. But this town is. I'm sure of that."_

* * *

He came back to find her gone.

Ark hunting was a dangerous job, and he wasn't about to take a little Irathient girl along with him to fight off hellbugs, mutants, and whatever other dangers were out in the Badlands. He usually left her with the Roller a kilometer out or so, far enough away that anything attracted to the arkfall would pass it by as meaningless wreckage on the way to greater treasures.

Besides the dangers, Irisa didn't fully trust him. He'd rescued her from being eaten, but she wasn't about to trust him completely so soon. She'd get nervous when he was in close proximity for too long a time, and though that time was growing longer, he didn't really want to push things.

The Roller had been left behind, so he was certain that he'd not gotten lost, but Irisa had vanished. Tracks were faintly visible in the surrounding area: most of them human, although there was a group of Votan prints that passed by near to the Roller. He could pick out some Sensoth, some Indogenes, and...

...dragged along the ground, what appeared to be tracks belonging to a small Irathient.

He followed the tracks until he saw wheelmarks. There were a number of Rollers, and even more motorcycle marks. The Votan prints continued alongside the vehicle marks, while the humans had travelled in comfort.

Whatever had happened, Irisa had been forcibly taken from him. These people - whether they were slavers or simply hated the Votan - had kidnapped the Irathient he had begun to consider family.

He was not about to accept that.

He went back to the Roller and started it up. He'd need the speed if he wanted to catch up to Irisa before anything truly awful happened, although he'd need to drive slowly in order to follow the tracks.

A few minutes later, he found it unnecessary to track the group, as the ground levelled out and he caught sight of a a group in the distance. He grabbed a pair of binoculars and cursed when he saw the group of aliens chained to a car that had been outfitted with more armor than Nolan figured was strictly necessary. A Sensoth was carrying an Irathient child - he assumed it was Irisa - who appeared to be unconscious.

He floored the gas. The Roller was built for stability rather than speed, but the caravan ahead was weighed down by the armor and was even slower than his vehicle. He briefly wondered how they could afford to use so much petrohol for their vehicles, but pushed the thought aside.

He needed to take stock of his inventory. He had a few po-tech guns - not many, and they weren't especially powerful. Hellbugs tended to die when you shot their stomachs, detonating the gulanite ore they used as a digestive aid, and it was a lucky bullet that did so, not an especially large one. Quantity was more important than quality, though it would be the exact opposite with the armored vehicle.

For that, he'd need heavier weaponry that he didn't have. He'd gotten some Votan tech, but he didn't know much about it - or even if it could be used as a weapon. The group of captives had a few Indogenes, though, and they might be able to figure it out...if he could get to them, give them the tech, and protect them for long enough to rig it.

He hung back, far enough away that the caravan wouldn't notice him unless they were looking, but close enough that he could keep an eye on its progress. They stopped when night fell, setting up the captives in the center of a ring they formed with their vehicles. The motorcycles were parked haphazardly around the larger cars.

The sound of voices reached his ears, and he watched as groups of humans exited the vehicles, congregating and setting up camp. They ate, ignoring the chained Votans, and when the meal was done, they dispersed, sleeping in their vehicles.

Nolan waited a half hour to make sure they were truly asleep before he grabbed the Votan tech and slowly snuck to the group of aliens, crouching low to the ground. He circled them until he found Irisa and prodded her until she woke. Her instinctive reaction was a snarl, though she was unable to do much more than that due to the handcuffs chaining her to the armored vehicle.

"Irisa," he whispered. "Irisa. It's me, Nolan. I'm here to get you out of here."

She looked at him before rattling the cuffs.

"Do you know who has the key?" he asked her.

She shook her head.

He took out the Votan tech he'd scavenged from the arkfall and showed her. "I'm gonna see if one of the Indogenes can make some sort of weapon out of this," he told her. She nodded, and watched him as he woke one of the Indogenes. The alien was frail, and likely hadn't eaten in days. He showed him the Votan tech. "Can this help you get free?" Nolan asked.

The Indogene looked at it.

"Yes," he said. "Yes. Free." He reached for the tech and began manipulating it with deft strokes of his fingers. He spoke to Nolan, though he didn't look away from his work. "You're already free," he said. "You don't need this kind of freedom."

"This kind?" asked Nolan.

"This will free us," the Indogene said with an odd smile. "It will free us, and the slavers, and it will free you if you are nearby."

"You're going to make a bomb?" Nolan asked.

"Exactly," the Indogene confirmed. "Thank you for giving us this freedom."

"I need to get my daughter out of here," he told the Indogene.

"Not possible," the alien shrugged. "The leader has the keys to the locks, and unless you have an army of some size, you will be unable to retrieve them."

A grunt made him turn his head, and he nearly ran over when he saw the blood pooling on Irisa's hands. "What are you _doing_?" he asked. As he watched, the Irathient girl pulled her hands from the cuffs, the blood easing the passage of the metal. Each wrist had been scraped of its skin, and her blood welled around the wounds.

"_Shtako_," Nolan cursed.

"Freedom," said the Indogene, making one final adjustment. The Votan tech emitted a beeping sound, glowing blue in the night.

"Run," Nolan urged, and he half-pulled Irisa with him as they scrambled away from the camp. The humans were rousing now, getting out of their cars to investigate the source of the light and sound, and the confusion was enough to allow the two to slip past, running to Nolan's Roller. They were nearly there when an explosion - the characteristic blue flame of Votan cold-fire - roared into the night.

Nolan didn't have time to reflect on it, searching the Roller for medical supplies, but Irisa looked at the blast, ignoring her bleeding wrists.

"These are gonna scar," Nolan said, wrapping the wounds in heavy gauze.

"You came for me," Irisa said, ignoring his statement.

"Yeah," Nolan nodded. "I did."

The little Irathient sighed, and _relaxed_. Her posture changed completely, the muscles Nolan hadn't even realized were coiled relaxed, and she flopped backwards onto the hood of the Roller.

"Thanks," she said quietly, and Nolan smiled.


End file.
